Willie Colon started 62 games for Pittsburgh before the Steelers released him in March in a cost-cutting move. He soon was signed to a one-year deal by the Jets, and is their starting right guard.

So today's matchup between the Jets and visiting Steelers at MetLife Stadium should mean a lot to Colon. And while it obviously does, he knows he can't get caught up in that, or he won't be able to function.

"I have a lot of emotional ties to those guys," Colon said after practice Friday, referring to his former Pittsburgh teammates. "A lot of those guys I know personally off the field. I know their families [and] I know them really well.

"It's important for me [in order] to play well," he added, "to take that emotional aspect out of it. I can't get caught up in, 'Oh, they got rid of me, I'm gonna kill them.' I have a job to do. … It's never about me. It's not about me. It's about the New York Jets. I can't walk into this game thinking it's 'Willie's revenge.' That would be selfish of me."

Interestingly, Jerricho Cotchery seems to feel much the same way about today's game. Cotchery was with the Jets from 2004-10 but asked for, and was granted his release in August 2011 because of a logjam at wide receiver. Cotchery, who still lives in New Jersey in the off-season with his wife Mercedes and their children, will be playing in East Rutherford for the first time since he left.

"I feel like I didn't have any bitterness when I left," Cotchery said on a conference call. "Things change in life, things happen where you just have to move on. … I didn't have any bitterness there and I still have good friends on the team, you want guys to do well. … It's going to be fun on Sunday being back in familiar territory. I look forward to it."

Cotchery's Steelers are a shocking 0-4, and the his old team has been equally surprising, sporting a 3-2 record.

"I'm not" surprised about the Jets, Cotchery said. "I've said all along that coach [Rex] Ryan is a very good coach. People are getting to see it, that's just it. He can coach his tail off and that's why you see the team play the way it's playing. He knows how to motivate guys. You can tell that it's a motivated group."

Colon sees the same thing from the inside, although he wasn't sure what to expect after watching the Jets from afar a year ago and seeing the same thing many others did. Colon had a rough year of his own, finishing the campaign on injured reserve for the third straight year, this time because of a knee.

"[The Jets] care about winning and they care about being a better franchise, and not being a circus group," Colon told Pittsburgh media on a conference call. "I think having the Tim Tebow circus out of here, and having different things that were kind of holding this team back, are starting to go out the window. I think we're all starting to care about football and only football."

Colon expanded upon those feelings Friday.

"Everyone is buying into the system," he said of the 2013 Jets. "Guys care about football and there don't seem to be any distractions. … They want to win. They're eager to get it done.

"As long as we all keep that mindset," he added, "the sky's the limit."

And as for Colon's emotions today?

"That city gave me a lot and I gave that city a lot," Colon said of Pittsburgh. But he quickly added, "It's a new chapter, I'm a Jet, and I ain't looking back."